Ousted fire director returns to work, leaves when cops are called again

TRENTON - Qareeb Bashir, who was removed from his position as fire director this month by Mayor George Muschal, returned to fire headquarters this morning accompanied by council members Kathy McBride and Alex Bethea.

McBride and Bethea were two of the five council members who voted to reinstall Bashir as fire director, overturning Muschal's firing. But Muschal stands by his ouster of Bashir and has filed a lawsuit seeking a state judge to affirm his opinion that he has the ability to hire and fire city directors.

When Bashir, McBride and Bethea entered the Perry Street building this morning, Bashir said they were met with a few obstacles.

"I don’t have my vehicle, the locks were changed, but I was able to enter my office," Bashir said.

But what he found when he got inside was an uncomfortable and unfavorable environment. He said he was approached by Leonard Carmichael, who was appointed by Muschal as the new fire director in Bashir's stead, and told to leave. Although McBride tried to argue with Carmichael, Bashir said Carmichael disagreed and threatened to call the police.

"He got rather belligerent and disrespectful," Bashir said.

Bashir said the trio stayed for another 15 minutes and the police never showed up, but he didn't know if they were on their way.

"We decided to leave because of the hostile environment," Bashir said.

He said he is looking forward to the court date set for May 19 to resolve the matter.

Carmichael did not immediately return a call seeking comment about the encounter.

Muschal said yesterday he believes he did the right thing in replacing Bashir and he trusts Carmichael as director.

Bashir said he believes Muschal is making a personal attack on him and upending the department, even though he is in office only to serve an abbreviated term to fill out the rest of the term of former Mayor Tony Mack who was ousted after he was convicted on federal corruption charges.

"Hes only going to be there for two months and yet he has taken the city and the deparmtent through all of this," Bashir said. "He has caused much division. He has actually moved the city backwards."